1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of handling files attached to an email when the email and the files are being sent to multiple recipients. More specifically, the invention relates to a method of applying different treatments to the attached files, corresponding to the different recipients, as the files are being sent with the email.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional email systems that allow the attachment of external files to outgoing emails require that each attached file receive the same treatment within a single email. For example, consider an email addressed to three recipients (Recipient 1, Recipient 2 and Recipient 3) having two attached external files (File 1 and File 2). A conventional email system will send each of the three recipients a copy of the email message and identical copies of both of the attached external files.
Some email systems allow attached files to be encrypted. If the user specifies encryption, each of the two files will be encrypted and each of the three recipients will receive the same encrypted version of the two external files. Any variation from this absolute set of treatments for attached files requires that the sender create separate emails. If the sender wants Recipient 1 to receive only an unencrypted copy of File 1, while Recipient 2 is to receive encrypted copies of both files and Recipient 3 is to receive only an unencrypted copy of File 2, then the sender must prepare three separate email transmissions.
This type of situation will occur frequently when multiple files containing different levels of detail are to be delivered to recipients located in countries having different file encryption requirements set by corporate policy or by regulation. Recipient 1 may be an executive who should receive File 1 containing only summary information and low-level details. If Recipient 1 is accessible through a secure local network, or is located in the same country as the sender, corporate policy may permit or the situation may require that File 1 be sent unencrypted.
Recipient 2, however, may need to receive detailed confidential information in File 2 in addition to the information in File 1. Recipient 2 may be based at a remote location in a different country, and may be accessible only through an insecure email link. In this case, Files 1 and 2 may need to be encrypted to conform to applicable export regulations or simply to protect important confidential information. Finally, Recipient 3 may be an engineer who needs only the details in File 2, but corporate policy requires encryption for such transmissions.
Using a traditional email client program, the sender would be required to send three separate emails with customized selections for the file to be attached to each message and the encryption to be used. If the sender wants to encrypt some files, but not others, it may even be necessary to send multiple copies of the same email to one or more recipients so that the treatment of each attached file can be varied.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of sending an email having one or more attached files to a plurality of recipients which allows the attached files to be handled in different way when being sent to the different recipients.
It is another object of the present invention to provide the method of the invention in a client-server implementation and in a single computer implementation.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.